HRC Statement on the Release of Kim Davis From Federal Custody

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organisation, responded to the news that U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered the release of Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis from federal custody and ordered her not to “interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.”

“It is imperative that Kim Davis follow the law and allow same-sex couples to access their constitutional right to marry the person they love. Period,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “While Davis has the right to believe whatever she likes, as a public official she has no legal basis to refuse to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The overwhelming majority of public officials across this country are following the law, and history will not judge her kindly. It’s far past time for this needless ordeal to end.”

After refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order directing her to issue marriage licenses in accordance with the law, and after being denied stays on that order at all levels, including from the Supreme Court of the Unites States, Davis was held in contempt of court and jailed on Thursday, September 3. The majority of her deputy clerks agreed to begin issuing marriage licenses in her absence on September 4.